A drama, a mockumentary style show, and a comedy. 2 hours of new shows. Everything else is returning shows and the odd special. Is this due to shows being cheaper to continue despite maybe not bringing the ratings they hoped ? Streaming taking away lots of writers and actors, as obviously the talent pool isn't bottomless? Networks scared to take risks?
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The networks are pretty much giving up. Nowadays, they're probably going to stick with what's cheap to make and easily mass marketed such as sitcoms, crime dramas, game shows, reality competitions, news, and of course, live sports. The heritage networks won't take too many risks nowadays thanks to streaming.
Time for FBI: Kansas City.
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Still can't believe they did Sydney over something like NCIS: Yokoska (or just call it NCIS: Japan), I know the US Navy parnership with Australia is strong, but I think there's more Navy stuff in Japan.
Then again, it took 3 spin-offs to get NCIS to Hawaii...
They only aired Sydney because of the actor’s strike in the US.
Might be a little easier for Sydney because they mostly speak English there
My dad worked in the NCIS as a special agent for most of his career. It’s kind of fun to tell people about it since they know the show so well. Anyway we lived in Hawaii for a long time during that so I always thought that was neat they finally moved the show there, true to my dad’s life.
Filming in Japan is so expensive and annoying that they made Shogun in British Columbia, Canada.
Australia has tax credits for filming.
Law & Order Toronto is currently a thing.
"They found semen in the eye socket eh?"
NCIS: Vatican City
NCIS recently had their 1000 episode special. Which is 1000 NCIS episodes spread across the entire various series.
It's a shame that Hawaii was canceled. As I watched it as background noise for Hawaiian scenery. The Final episode ends with a cliffhanger that we'll never see the end of.
That final cliffhanger happened in the last 30 seconds of the show. I don't understand why they didn't just cut that bit off. They already knew it was being canceled so there's not point in dropping a brand new cliffhanger.
They could even pretend the mob in KC hasn't been a joke for many decades.
NBC has so many damn crime shows with the multiple L&O's and Chicago Fire/Med/PD which all cross over with each other a lot. Dick Wolf has so much content for NBC.
Also CBS, he does the FBI series.
Time for Law & Order: Gaylord, Law & Order: Bangor and Law & Order: Anchorage to fill out the schedule.
It’s all generic schlock to me, but god damn does my girlfriend love her a Dick Wolf show.
After every episode : “That Dick Wolf”
CBS also has a LOT of JAG/NCIS spinoff shows.
And every network has a history of shows where law enforcement consults someone with a new quirky skillset - a Mentalist, they have amnesia but their body is covered in tattoos that help solve the crime, they are a novelist that can help think like a criminal, they specialize in art forgery, they are a fake psychic, they have OCD that allows them to pick up small details, etc.
Law and Order: Scranton
Starting volunteer deputy Dwight Schrute?
That show was the bomb.
Starring Patrick Mahomes!
I hope they film a scene at Town Topic.
I feel like there are several channels now that just show one or two shows all day. It's basically like streaming. You have a Seinfeld channel, an The Office channel, etc.
I think this has to do a lot with society not having much of a shared collective entertainment consciousness now, aside from sports.
Television used to feel like a larger-than-life medium with larger-than-life stars, largely because the audience didn't have infinite other on-demand choices. Because everything was way more centralized, they could dump enormous amounts of money into a pilot or continuing a series and virtually everyone with cable was going to see it, or hear of it in some way.
Now we're kind of in our own little solipsistic, perfectly curated streaming bubbles. We never have to be exposed to anything unorthodox we might end up liking. If it's not in our immediate orbit of interest, it may as well not even exist.
So is it possible to recapture that shared consciousness we used to have as consumers of entertainment, in the streaming era where resources and money are now spread thinner than ever? Probably, but we just haven't figured it out yet -- remember, this way of consuming media is still pretty new and big corporations and networks are slow to evolve.
I was definitely thinking this. Between other options like streaming services & other platforms like Twitch and YouTube, there's more platforms where different types of programs can be made to satisfied several niches, which thins out how much content Network TV can absorb.
I mostly agree except the part about today’s audiences not being exposed to “unorthodox” programs. Our media stream is more individualized these days and we are less exposed to ideas or programs outside our personal wheelhouses or personal comfort zones. However, there is more weird programming accessible today than there was a few decades ago.
On the days of network TV, a prime time slot was a valuable and limited commodity. There were only three networks and limited prime time slots. A network could not waste a slot on some weird show. It had to use that slot for something with mass appeal like sports, a sitcom, or crime drama. Running an “unorthodox” show was a gamble and meant displacing a safer bet.
Netflix and other streaming services have infinite slots. They can run a tried and true hit or a new series with mass appeal. It can also run weird stuff like a documentary about a gun-slinging, mullet headed zookeeper.
Completely agree, the take was good outside of the remarks about broadcast television being unorthodox. This is incredibly obvious just browsing something like Emmy nominations over the years and seeing the huge increase in variety of shows produced.
I for one dread the days of monolithic broadcast television ever returning. Streaming has plenty of problems of its own at the moment, but its variety and quality in comparison with broadcast television is not among them.
I think the result is the opposite of this. Like you said, on traditional TV, shows were made with the expectation that virtually everyone was going to see it. So they needed to make shows, especially the primetime shows that got budgets, appealing to every demographic possible -- so many stories of shows getting shot down because they were too niche and didn't have elements appealing to both teenage boys and elderly women, and of shows being told to add a new teen girl character even when it'd make no sense because they gotta get the teenage audience. Proposing anything with a weird unfamiliar concept was almost always an instant no-go. Unorthodox content almost always means alienating seniors and background-watchers so right there you've alienated two major demos when the single most important principle is "hit every demo."
The financial model heavily penalized making unorthodox content too. TV networks sell adtime which means you want the maximum number of viewers at every given moment, their enthusiasm being irrelevant as long as they're still watching. It's better to make a show that 100M people think is a 6/10 "ehh, it's decent enough to not turn off" than a show that 70M people think is a 10/10 masterpiece, and you do that by making very familiar shows that require little engagement and try to repeat existing successes, usually matching whatever show preceded them. With streaming it's the opposite, you're selling subscriptions and people won't subscribe for a bunch of 6/10 shows but they will for their one beloved 10/10 show. So instead of requiring every single show to hit every single demo with a tried-and-true lowest-common-denominator format like a traditional TV network, streamers are making much more unorthodox hyper-niche-focused shows all aiming to really give specific niches what they crave. Turn on Apple TV+ or Netflix now and you have a lavish period costume drama combining 19th century romance with modern youth culture, a time-hopping hard sci-fi alt-history drama with long engineering sequences, a high concept cyberpunk neo-noir, a deeply uncomfortable dark-comedy mockumentary with a complex serialized plot, an erotic fairy tale adventure, a Franco-Japanese anime about colonialism and xenophobia, all kinds of unorthodox shows that you would be shocked to ever find on a traditional TV network.
All that and also, there are so much more content / forms and entertainment (movie, shorts (YouTube /tiktok), games, and etc.,) easily accesible to vie for our attention. Wheel of time might cost a ton of money / I was interested in watching, after couple episodes, I just don't find it engaging, off to something else, same with the Amazon lord of the rings thing.
So... reality TV and dick wolf shows
Wouldn't mind more game shows, though. A reboot of Concentration and Sale of the Century would be fun.
yup, and now we have less stuff to watch because we get 8 episodes every 18 months from streaming services
That’s fine. But 3 shows is hardly anything
That's true. And considering that NBC has given so many of the greatest TV shows of all time, kinda sad.
But on the other hand, they also gave us the Quantum Leap reboot
Recent show
Revealed 17 March 2024 - Mums Who Do Porn
Is this the bottom of the barrel? or can we go lower!!!
Many channels already gave up. The Sci-Fi channel rebranded as SyFy and primarily focused on wrestling. The History Channel no longer focuses on documentaries, instead it's all "reality" TV and other bullshit like Ancient Aliens. The networks gave up a long time ago.
I work in post production. 10 years ago was my first pilot season working at a large post facility in LA. Our company had 50 different pilot episodes to finish that year. That number went down every year after and I’d say at this point pilot season doesn’t even exist anymore.
Same. I used to both anticipate and dread pilots. Dread because, well, the workload. Anticipate because I made a ton in overtime.
Nowadays we don't even talk about pilot season any more. Work is a pretty consistent slow trickle year-round.
I'm not involved in the industry, may try one day, but I feel like I've seen a lot more "back door" pilots in recent years than before. What do you think?
Seems like pilots are a dying breed. With streaming they typically get a full season loaded up and if it does well gets renewed, if it does poorly, cancelled. The first season has effectively replaced the pilot. Which has pluses and minuses I'm sure. On the bright side at last we get one season. On the downside there's a lot fewer shows overall as more resources are going into a full season of fewer shows.
That part is not true. The companies order less pilots, but those only got aired if the show was picked up. Vast majority of them never saw public release. And by the number of releases, we peaked in 2022 with 600 shows released. There are just so many more outlets than in 90-00s when pilot order numer peaked. Even after correction to about ~450 scripted releases this year, we are way above ~200 shows and ~100 pilots produced 20 years ago.
Back door pilots have become more common because they help solve a marketing problem. You used to be able to run new shows in timeslots next to popular shows, guaranteeing eyes on them. Seinfeld's first season was scheduled after the Cheers summer rerun timeslot for example, so there were 10-20 million people already tuned in as it began. Parks & Rec would run after The Office and Community would run after 30 Rock because they appealed to similar audiences. You can't do that with streaming, so how would you show Parks & Rec to Office fans? You can recommend it through the app but that doesn't get nearly as much attention -- especially for sitcoms where people don't usually watch because the plot description or poster looks interesting. So you'd do a backdoor pilot, trying to squeeze Parks & Rec into an Office episode somehow.
I think streaming services could actually benefit from creating a faux live-TV timeslot-style stream. Like if Netflix had a livestream that showed sitcoms 24/7 with similar shows grouped together. It'd give people who just want to throw somethng easy on a one-click button to do it and provide that timeslot marketing opportunity.
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Peacock sort of has something like this, but they don't vary the programming enough and show hours-long marathons of one show at a time like cable does now, which defeats the purpose. I think they should do playlists. Like, the "classic comedy block" that would just show one random episode from each of 6 or 8 shows.
any random gossip?
Plenty but not that I’d care to air out on Reddit haha.
darn...anything without disclosing names?
Lots of infidelity and expensive divorces.
Most big name talent I’ve worked with are either cool as shit, great people, or raging egomaniac assholes who treat people like shit. Not a lot of middle ground.
From what I’ve seen as a 35 year old man, most men who are big time in demand talent in their field do not have normal / happy marriage and family situations. I think that trend is changing with people my age though.
I just watched this episode the other day, and thought about how out of all the things Star Trek got wrong, this obvious joke is the one thing that is pretty much bang on.
I hope the Sanctuary District Bell Riots don't take place in the year 2024 like it did in Star Trek Deep Space Nine. Homeless people crowded together living in tents and disheveled condition. If it was anything Star Trek was spot on, it was that area in our society.
Strange New Worlds had a video montage of events leading to World War III that included the January 6 insurrection.
I mean television shows still exist, there's more now than a decade ago. They just now aren't all on linear.
Excuse me, but I don’t watch television.
I watch Netflix on my laptop.
Netflix ad a la Apple: "what's a television?"
We still have 16 years left.
When streaming was really getting big I remember people online talking about how "TV was dead" because they were trying to differentiate streaming/web TV from other forms. It was so strange, like some weird nerd urge to be on the cutting edge, so they had to act like TV was "dead" and something new was taking its place, except streaming/web TV is functionally the same thing, TV is literally in the name. I'm getting the same vibes from the post with the Star Trek quote. They didn't predict anything here, people still want serialized storytelling in a visual medium.
The BBC banned a Star Trek episode that mentioned Ireland became united in 2024.
https://www.live95fm.ie/news/live95-news/watch-banned-star-trek-episode-predicted-united-ireland-in-2024/
I guess it came back, because there’s a TV news transmission in the final episode of Voyager.
Yeah, it's weird like that. Maybe it's just news? DS9 had a broadcast award ceremony in an episode, and Lower Decks had news going on in the background of an episode.
I suppose informational livestreams are still a thing, but content is so diversified and oftentimes interactivity is preferred (holonovels, music, theater etc) that sitting and watching is just not appealing.
Wasn't that the Federation News Service, where Jake SIsko reported during the Dominion War.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Federation_News_Service
I feel like it was just a meta joke and not a serious piece of worldbuilding.
There also used to be 20-30 episodes per season. Now we get like 8-15 episodes per season.
Lucky to get more than 8 with any streaming show I've noticed. The new normal.
And at least a year between seasons
a year? try 2-3
Sits patiently waiting for Severance season 2....
Problem with 12-13 at the beginning of streaming was how much filler there was. And not funnfiller like in old 24ep shows. But just dull, boring, slow, unnecessary episodes that did nothing.
8eps helped to cut that bloat away, but it also made some shows, that would gain from having more episodes, but now rushed with no breathing room.
With 24eps you also had the show having unserious moments with itself, cause you needed to pad the eps eith something and with so many episodes you took it less seriously (in a way) and didnt feel like every episode needs to be the most important thing in the world, so you go and have fun and maybe create one of the most memorable episodes because of that. (It is 12, but Blink was written during a weekend with Moffat not even remembering writing it, lol)
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Strange New Worlds would definitely benefit from a few more episodes per season if they can keep the quality up.
Hell, an episode like The Inner Light or Lower Decks doesn't happen in modern short seasons where there's no time for that kind of diversion
I believe DS9 has 26 episodes per season, and I like all the episodes except maybe 3 total. Seriously, one of the best shows ever. They went over a great deal of topics from extremely dark to very light.
Longer seasons work better when the show is more episodic and some crappy episodes don't spoil anything. A 24-episode season also necessitates a large writers' room and the inconsistency that brings. A cohesive fully-serialized drama written by a small consistent team is virtually impossible to do, it's just too much content to organize, and most of the attempts to do it collapsed under their own weight and became really messy and inconsistent and/or got shortened quickly (Lost, Alias). Shortened seasons have come with the trend towards more serialized stories.
A good compromise might be the X-Files format, where each season effectively has an 8 episode serial story arc but also 8-16 independent stories written by a large writers' room, stories that could be light and comical or total genre shifts or slower character pieces without much plot. But not every show allows for a format where it makes sense to put the main story on hold to go do some bullshit in another state for a week. Imagine Breaking Bad has Hank sitting on the toilet for 3 weeks while Walt is off looking for the sasquatch or Skyler debuts her community theater show.
Feels like this was often the case anyway, no? Like Smallville or Supernatural. You have some story in it, arc that have important episodes and then character stuff or "filler" (that is good) but story kinda progresses.
But yeah, not every stoey requires is and that why e.g. Airbender would benefit from it while Breaking Bad detract.
This right here. My wife has never seen the OC and some podcast she listens to mentioned it so she started watching it. AT LEAST 23 episodes per season. It’s wild. And now FBI gives like 10.
I don't like major network crime procedurals like FBI, but 10? That's not true. They've done as many as 23 a year. (It's fewer this season because of the strikes, but I bet it'll be back to 22-23 next season.)
The downside is that it's pretty much *only* boring major network crime procedurals that do 22-23 episodes a season. Everything else has much lower episode counts now.
Network shows are still doin